velodrome guide

[Jim C]

The velodrome is the home of track cycling, where the speedsters of the sport fly around at up to 100km/hr.

It hosts a variety of events - the individual and team pursuit, the 'kilo', the madison, sprint, points race and the keirin among others.

The velodrome is different from venue to venue - it can vary in length from 250m to 500m.

Each track is banked to allow riders to fly round the corners without having to slow down at all.
Because of that, you can work up a good pace.

The track itself is marked up with a series of lines - red, black and blue.

The red line is known as the sprinter's line - riders have to go round this if they want to overtake a lead rider.

Then there's the black line.
That's the shortest route around the track and it's important to stay on that as much as possible.

Should you weave in or outside that it obviously costs you valuable time.

Further up the track is the blue stayer's line.
This is used in Madison races for riders to rest between efforts, and it can get fairly busy and bunched up there

For more velodrome info visit
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velodrome#Track_markings

[Jim C]

World and Olympic champion Chris Hoy tells you all you need to know about track cycling events.

click below

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_s ... 362631.stm